Training For Life

There are many reasons to start or continue a fitness regime. A young athlete may choose to add resistance, speed, agility and or balance training to their weekly schedule to enhance their performance in a specific sport.

As we age we may or may not continue to engage in sports but if we don’t there are ample reasons why we should still continue to train our bodies.

“Train for Life” has been my motto for many years now. The importance of daily and weekly active training has been noted by scientists, Doctors and even philosophers as far back as Socrates and Plato. Plato is attributed with the quote “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save and preserve it. “

Although logic and common sense would have all of us in agreement that physical training is good for us, many in our population still do not exercise at all.

Recently Time Magazine published an article titled “The New Science of Exercise”. The jist of the article is that exercise is now considered medicine. Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky and his colleagues have been studying the results of exercise on both animals and humans. The study in the article referred to research with sick rats. After a course of selected workouts the sick rats who exercised were found to be tumor free. The sedentary rats had fat all over and half had tumors.

Dr. Tarnopolsky is quoted as stating “It’s unbelievable. If there were a drug that could do for human health everything that exercise can, it would be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed.”

So essentially, one could consider their daily work-out their own personal health pill.

Here is a short list of what resistance “Training for Life” can do for you as you age:

Keep you from losing much needed muscle mass – sadly adults who do not resistance train can lose several pounds of muscle every decade

Increase your metabolic rate – thus you will burn more calories all day long than your sedentary counterparts

Reduce Body Fat

Increase Bone Density

Increase Muscle Mass

Reduce Resting Blood Pressure

Keep you out of the nursing home – if you are unable to get out of a chair you may find yourself there

There are many other benefits of a consistent resistance training program. Ideally you should resistance train two to three days a week.

There are many ways to engage in resistance training at AVAC®:

AVAC® Personal Trainers can meet with you to set up a program tailored to your specific needs

Absolute Fit classes provide structured programs in a small group setting with personal attention

AVAC’s Group Fitness program offers a few resistance training classes as well: TBC / Spin RX / Step and Scupt

And don’t forget you also want to add a cardiovascular component to your training schedule